Flat screen monitor dying!

[Harry]

My Dell 1702FP 17" monitor was dying a slow death. It was taking longer and longer to come up each time I powered it down. Then, it started doing the same trick when I had only set the computer to sleep. It got worse and worse, out of warranty and six years old. (But a damn good monitor.)

I called Dell technical support at the mini-mart in India. After asking me if I had tried another monitor, they politely informed me that it was out of warranty and that even if it was in warranty, they would only send out a replacement monitor. No repairs are available, not so much as a simple troubleshooting instruction. (Dell is on my short list.)

I had looked at new monitors ($300) and since this one worked fine after long warm-ups, I decided to research further. The problem presented itself by flashing power LEDs on the front panel in a particular pattern. Good ol' Google to the rescue! After running a few keywords through, I came up with the following solution for a chronic problem...

http://www.instructables.com/id/ELWXF03NV6EQZJIZM2/

Off to the parts store, I picked up two 60 cent capacitors. I already had some "hair thin" solder. I busted the old capacitors off the board (nothing to lose) and tacked in the new ones.

WHOOPIE! It works!

Throw-away society = 0.
Component repair guys = 1.

That's hair thin solder that you see in the photo lying over a new 10 mfd 63v capacitor (center) and the old 10 mfd 16v surface mount capacitor is the tiny thing to its right. Black stripe is the negative lead. C604 is already in and C507 is next. $1.20 worth of parts rescues a $300 monitor. Almost like bringing an old engine back to life.

[Jim Tremble]

Harry

It is great when you have the ability to do this. Most of us do not and would go out and buy a new one.

Can we contact you with our problems to try to fix our equipment ??

Thanks for the info,

Jim

[Harry]

Originally Posted by Jim Tremble

Can we contact you with our problems to try to fix our equipment?

Nope. Got my hands full.

[Craig A]

Darn Harry!
You're even better than I thought......... .............

[Harry]

Except that my old(er) eyes aren't what they used to be. Those parts are small and there's no way that a multi-pin chip can be resoldered, let alone troubleshooting one in the first place.

Monitors are like magnetos - check the capacitors first.

[Ken Majeski]

Well....Something kinda along the same line happened to me the other day.... I was getting Page can't be displayed a Lot... But only sometimes... So called my Satellite provider and they checked things out and said something was Funny with my Ethernet port... But it was lit up and seemed OK...

I ran a cord over to the Old Puter and everything was Just Fine on that one...

So Etherent port is part of the Mother Board So was over to Wallyworld and found Ethernet card for 14 Bucks so plugged it into expansion slot and everything is Just Ducky Now.... Anybody ever hear of an Intermittent Ethernet port...????

So Thanks Harry... I don't have a Dell but if my monitor dies I will look to Google....

[Brad Kelley]

I've had some ethernet cards go bad, but haven't had an onboard port or controller die yet. Electrical storms can play hell with ethernet, that's what killed 2 of my previous cards, even though there were no direct lightning strikes nearby that I can recall. I'm hoping my laptop's wireless is more robust than a wired connection!

I built my computer from components in college. I guess I learned a little about it then, but I really don't have a lot of knowledge about computer repair. But, somehow from pure dumb luck I've been able to diagnose a bad memory board that was causing my computer to lock up during boot, and I've had 2 power supplies die. One power supply completely fried and wouldn't power on anything, the other started causing Windows to crash. I'm still not sure how I figured all that out, but after $50 I was back in business each time.

[Elden DuRand]

Originally Posted by Harry

My Dell 1702FP 17" monitor was dying a slow death. It was taking longer and longer to come up each time I powered it down. Then, it started doing the same trick when I had only set the computer to sleep. It got worse and worse, out of warranty and six years old. (But a damn good monitor.)
..................snip............

Harry:

The monitor I'm now using may be the same thing as you have - maybe a little younger (I'm too lazy to look around there for the model number). I got it for free because, right after the warranty ran out, it quit......DEAD! Nada! Nuttin', Honey!

My Nephew fixes 'puters and he was getting ready to throw it into the dumpster but I thought I'd take a poke at it.

What I found out was that a surface mount fuse (about 1/16" thick and wide and about 1/8" long) had blown.

Not knowing what the rating was, I jumpered in pigtailed SFE (physically LOTS bigger) fuses starting with a low current and blowing them until I found one that held. It's been duck taped in behind the chassis for over a year now and is a-workin' up a storm

I LOVE to cheat the junk man!!!!!!

Take care - Elden